Miami Student

Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Front Page

Beatrice Fernando, an anti-slavery adovocate, speaks about her experiences as a slave and how she survived Thursday evening at Hall Auditorium (Scott Allison / The Miami Student).

"You have taken the first step to fight against the beast of slavery by being here today," said anti-slavery advocate and slavery survivor Beatrice Fernando to an audience Thursday evening at Hall Auditorium.

The lecture was sponsored by Miami University's chapter of AIESEC, an organization that facilitates student exchange opportunities and promotes cultural awareness and understanding about global issues, according to AIESEC President Erin Conwell.

"A lot of members are very passionate about stopping human trafficking and want to raise awareness on campus about contemporary issues," Conwell said. "I think it's something a lot of people don't think about. People associate slavery with the past."

According to Fernando, slavery is the second largest crime trade in today's world. She said slavery still exists, even in Westernized countries, and can victimize individuals taken from their homes, children given up to pay debts, girls forced into sexual slavery or women promised employment.

Fernando, a native Sri Lankan, detailed her experience with slavery more than 20 years ago. Fernando was abandoned by her husband while pregnant. Not wanting to burden her family, Fernando left home to work as housekeeper in Lebanon.

"I told my mother, I will come back with bags of money," Fernando said.

In Lebanon, she cleaned four houses daily without being able to leave the homes.

After falling ill, Fernando was placed in a different house without receiving pay for her previous work.

Fernando said she suffered extreme abuse at the hands of the homeowner, a powerful woman in the community. Fernando's allotted food supply dwindled to nothing, and she said the woman beat her regularly and brutally.

Fernando said she prayed for a miracle, wrote a letter to her son and one to her mother and jumped off a fourth floor balcony.

"I thought, why wait for death to come when I can volunteer to die with the hope of living?" Fernando said.

She woke in a hospital 21 days later.

Although doctors told Fernando she would never walk, she regained strength after returning to Sri Lanka. Fernando later moved to the U.S.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools